There were dozens of activists and police officers, their attention fixed on one man: Ahn Hak-sop, a 95-year-old former North Korean prisoner of war who was making his way home, to the other side of the border that divides the Korean peninsula.

For the first time since sending troops to fight in Ukraine, North Korea is publicly confirming combat deaths, an abrupt reversal after months of silence and denial. State media broadcast an emotional ceremony featuring Kim Jong Un,

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during an event to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the country's liberation from Japan's colonial rule, in Pyongyang, North Korea, August 14, 2025, in this picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency.

FILE – Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 2, 2019. (Jorge Silva/Pool Photo via AP, File)

North Korea has cut off official communications with Seoul and Washington, while Kim Jong Un has expanded his nuclear program and test-fired missiles in defiance of United Nations Security Council sanctions.

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said her country will never see South Korea as a partner for diplomacy. Kim Yo Jong, who is one of her brother’s top foreign policy officials, denounced the ongoing South Korea-US military drills as a “reckless invasion rehearsal” and claimed Seoul’s peace gestures conceal a “sinister intention” against Pyongyang,